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gopherhockey
04-03-2003, 10:26 AM
I wanted to post both as a small explanation of our site, as well as to get some feedback.

First, this is the second major overhaul that I have done with the MORC site. This last one was difficult because it meant trying to merge multiple sites that each had their own look & feel into one larger site, while trying to keep things easy to navigate, look nice etc. This was not an easy job, and I thank the IT Committee for their help with this. I think we made a good effort, but as with everything there can be improvements.

Having said that, I wanted to point out a few things with the site so people get a general idea of what we tried to do.

The first think you see is our main home page. This is the page where you get a quick view of whats happening - the most important news, status on the forums, and other general information.

There are two major navigation areas to our site - one on the left side near the top, and one at the very top right of the screen.

The one on the left changes as you navigate through the main sections of our site. If you are in the racing area, you get a different nav bar on the left. If you are in the trail review area, you get yet another navbar on the left.

The main navigation is done at the top of the page. There are 4 main areas to the site:

The home button always takes you back to the initial "home" page and its contents (mainly trail advocate and morc information).

The forums button takes you into the message forums (if you are reading this, you are in our message forums).

The racing button takes you to a racing section that is currently being worked on.

Finally, the trails button takes you to our extensive list of trail reviews and information, conditions etc.

These are all the basic divisions of our online resource (thus, they get large buttons).

Below the large buttons there are smaller buttons. These are mostly forum related.. however, they are still useful!

The usercp button takes you to your user settings page where you can modify how you see things in the forums, read your private mail, edit your member picture and avatar, etc.

The register button ist here to help new users sign up.

The calendar button (perhaps should be a larger button) is for all our events (not just morc events!) - races, trail work, meetings etc.

The faq is more for the forums, but eventually will cover more of the site.

The search button will search our message forums.

Finally, the log out button logs you off the site in case you share your PC with someone else. For the most part you don't need to log out when you leave - that way when you come back you will automatically be logged in (for the most part).

I realize that all these buttons can be confusing... and we will work next fall to try improve things once again. Until then, I encourage you to click on EVERYTHING. Try all the buttons, all the links... there is a TON of info out there, and I think many people are missing much of it. You can't break the system by playing around.. and if you find something you don't understand, please either post here or let me know via email. I am relying on everyone to help keep an eye on things and have this become a real community "hang out" on the Internet...

I hope this helps?

BrightYellow
04-08-2003, 08:14 AM
John,

Is there a way to seach for all new forum posts from yesterday, or two days ago? When I do the search, it seems to require that I put in a word to search for. I can't figure out how to search for all posts from yesterday.

I love having the forums tell me the new posts since last time I was here. But, if I don't go read them, leave the site and come back, it says there are 0 new posts. It would be great if I could find all new post since yesterday or two days ago.

-D

gopherhockey
04-08-2003, 09:13 AM
I just added a feature to the forums search page that should enable you to do just that. Check for the buttons on the right side - let me know if that helps solve this search issue.

BrightYellow
04-10-2003, 08:30 AM
That search works perfect! Thanks...

tmac
04-30-2003, 12:11 PM
Is is possible to set up the Trail Conditions page to sort the trails by which has been updated most recently. I understand that this board is partial to Lebanon, due to all the work that is being done there, but it would be nice not to have to really hunt for the most current information. Lebanon will probably stay at the top anyway, considering the use it gets by MORC members.

Great site, I hope it keeps growing.

jaybird
04-30-2003, 01:26 PM
I'd like to see the inclusion of PDF files as a valid file attachment. With the race season around the corner it would be nice to be able to attach any race forms, letters, bulletins, etc. to postings.

Ditto on the trail conditions comment by Ty.

gopherhockey
04-30-2003, 01:45 PM
Originally posted by tmac
Is is possible to set up the Trail Conditions page to sort the trails by which has been updated most recently. I understand that this board is partial to Lebanon, due to all the work that is being done there, but it would be nice not to have to really hunt for the most current information. Lebanon will probably stay at the top anyway, considering the use it gets by MORC members.

Great site, I hope it keeps growing.

Hmmm.. interesting. I'll have to see if sort is something possible to do. I was originally thinking of splitting it up, as the list could continue to grow (and I suspect that metro trails will be some of the most popular)

I do hope people aren't discouraged that we put so much info here about Lebanon. It is my "home trail" and since I do the web site, it does tend to get top billing on a lot of things. It is really one of the only current "regular" trail work places as well....

I think you will start to see this spread out more as the year goes on and other trails get cranking with trail work etc. We certainly could give more attention to other trails, and I totally invite people to post about them, post pictures etc.

gopherhockey
04-30-2003, 01:49 PM
Originally posted by jaybird
I'd like to see the inclusion of PDF files as a valid file attachment. With the race season around the corner it would be nice to be able to attach any race forms, letters, bulletins, etc. to postings.


Hmm.. I think I could add pdf for sure, we use it many other places on the web site.

However, I am trying to discourage posting attachements directly into messages - at least right now. When this is done (with the version of forums we have) the attachments are saved right into the main database, rather than being saved as a separate file on the web site. This causes the database to grow almost out of control... I already had to reduce or elminate some of the picture postings. The next version allows attachments to be saved off separately, so it will let us be way more flexible with that.

You can also link to any file of any kind on other web sites or ftp storage areas. I often store files elsewhere and just include a link in the message - that allows people to get to the file, but saves our database and web space. This isn't always convenient for people though, and the last thing I want to do is discourage active posts - espeically ones full of information.

I'll look at the attachment issue and maybe tweak the size limit a bit. Thanks for the suggestion - excellent!

manual63
05-01-2003, 12:27 PM
I want the site to sense my thoughts and just go where I want it to go when I think about it. I am even willing to wear a 45 pound helmet with sensors all over it, just to I don't have to click the mouse button or use the keyboard!!!!!

Can you do that?

I like this guy.....:banana:

gopherhockey
05-01-2003, 12:43 PM
I have such a system, but it doesn't involve a helmet (it hooks up elsewhere) and it normally is only used for.. er.. other kinds of sites...

:etard:

Trevize1138
05-01-2003, 03:43 PM
Originally posted by gopherhockey
I have such a system, but it doesn't involve a helmet (it hooks up elsewhere) and it normally is only used for.. er.. other kinds of sites...

:etard:

A force-feedback joystick?

;)